Configuration to Christ, the Head and Shepherd, and Pastoral
Charity
21. By sacramental consecration the priest is configured to
Jesus Christ as head and shepherd of the Church, and he is endowed with a
"spiritual power" which is a share in the authority with which Jesus
Christ guides the Church through his Spirit.(45)
By virtue of this consecration brought about by the
outpouring of the Spirit in the sacrament of holy orders, the spiritual life of
the priest is marked, molded and characterized by the way of thinking and
acting proper to Jesus Christ, head and shepherd of the Church, and which are
summed up in his pastoral charily.
Jesus Christ is head of the Church his body. He is the
"head" in the new and unique sense of being a "servant,"
according to his own words: "The Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk. 10:45 ). Jesus' service attains its fullest
expression in his death on the cross, that is, in his total gift of self in
humility and love. "He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil.
2:7-8). The authority of Jesus Christ as head coincides then with his service,
with his gift, with his total, humble and loving dedication on behalf of the
Church. All this he did in perfect obedience to the Father; he is the one true
Suffering Servant of God, both priest and victim.
The spiritual existence of every priest receives its life
and inspiration from exactly this type of authority, from service to the
Church, precisely inasmuch as it is required by the priest's configuration to
Jesus Christ Head and Servant of the Church.(46) As St. Augustine once reminded
a bishop on the day of his ordination: "He who is head of the people must
in the first place realize that he is to be the servant of many. And he should
not disdain being such; I say it once again, he should not disdain being the
servant of many, because the Lord of Lords did not disdain to make himself our
servant."(47)
The spiritual life of the ministers of the New Testament
should therefore be marked by this fundamental attitude of service to the
People of God (cf. Mt. 20:24ff.; Mk. 10:43 -44),
freed from all presumption of desire of "lording over" those in their
charge (cf. 1 Pt. 5 :2-3). The priest is to perform this service freely and
willingly as God desires. In this way the priests, as the ministers, the
"elders" of the community, will be in their person the
"model" of the flock, which for its part is called to display this
same priestly attitude of service toward the world - in order to bring to
humanity the fullness of life and complete liberation.
22. The figure of Jesus Christ as shepherd of the Church,
his flock, takes up and represents in new and more evocative terms the same
content as that of Jesus Christ as head and servant. Fulfilling the prophetic
proclamation of the Messiah and savior joyfully announced by the psalmist and
the prophet Ezekiel (cf. Ps. 22-23; Ez. 34:11ff.), Jesus presents himself as
"the good shepherd" (Jn. 10:11 ,
14), not only of Israel
but of all humanity (cf. Jn. 10:16 ).
His whole life is a continual manifestation of his "pastoral
charity," or rather, a daily enactment of it. He feels compassion for the
crowds because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd
(cf. Mt. 9:35 -36). He goes in search
of the straying and scattered sheep (cf. Mt. 18:12 -14)
and joyfully celebrates their return. He gathers and protects them. He knows
them and calls each one by name (cf. Jn. 10:3). He leads them to green pastures
and still waters (cf. Ps. 22-23) and spreads a table for them, nourishing them
with his own life. The good shepherd offers this life through his own death and
resurrection, as the Church sings out in the Roman liturgy: "The good
shepherd is risen! He who laid down his life for his sheep, who died for his
flock, he is risen, alleluia."(48)
The author of the first letter of Peter calls Jesus the
"chief Shepherd" (1 Pt. 5:4) because his work and mission continue in
the Church through the apostles (cf. Jn. 21:15 -17)
and their successors (cf. 1 Pt. 5:1ff.), and through priests. By virtue of
their consecration, priests are configured to Jesus the good shepherd and are
called to imitate and to live out his own pastoral charity.
Christ's gift of himself to his Church, the fruit of his
love, is described in terms of that unique gift of self made by the bridegroom
to the bride, as the sacred texts often suggest. Jesus is the true bridegroom
who offers to the Church the wine of salvation (cf. Jn. 2:11 ). He who is "the head of the Church, his body,
and is himself its savior" (Eph. 5:23) "loved the Church and gave
himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in
splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
without blemish" (Eph. 5 :25-27). The Church is indeed the body in which
Christ the head is present and active, but she is also the bride who proceeds
like a new Eve from the open side of the redeemer on the cross.
Hence Christ stands "before" the Church and
"nourishes and cherishes her" (Eph. 5
:29 ), giving his life for her. The priest is called to be the
living image of Jesus Christ, the spouse of the Church.(49) Of course, he will
always remain a member of the community as a believer alongside his other
brothers and sisters who have been called by the Spirit, but in virtue of his
configuration to Christ, the head and shepherd, the priest stands in this
spousal relationship with regard to the community. "Inasmuch as he
represents Christ, the head, shepherd and spouse of the Church, the priest is
placed not only in the Church but also in the forefront of the
Church."(50) In his spiritual life, therefore, he is called to live out
Christ's spousal love toward the Church, his bride. Therefore, the priest's
life ought to radiate this spousal character, which demands that he be a
witness to Christ's spousal love and thus be capable of loving people with a
heart which is new, generous and pure - with genuine self - detachment, with
full, constant and faithful dedication and at the same time with a kind of "divine
jealousy" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2) and even with a kind of maternal tenderness,
capable of bearing "the pangs of birth" until "Christ be
formed" in the faithful (cf. Gal. 4:19).
23. The internal principle, the force which animates and
guides the spiritual life of the priest inasmuch as he is configured to Christ
the head and shepherd, is pastoral charity, as a participation in Jesus
Christ's own pastoral charity, a gift freely bestowed by the Holy Spirit and
likewise a task and a call which demand a free and committed response on the
part of the priest.
The essential content of this pastoral charity is the gift
of self, the total gift of self to the Church, following the example of Christ.
"Pastoral charity is the virtue by which we imitate Christ in his self -
giving and service. It is not just what we do, but our gift of self, which
manifests Christ's love for his flock. Pastoral charity determines our way of
thinking and acting, our way of relating to people. It makes special demands on
us."(51)
The gift of self, which is the source and synthesis of
pastoral charity, is directed toward the Church. This was true of Christ who
"loved the Church and gave himself up for her" (Eph. 5:25 ), and the same must be true for the
priest. With pastoral charity, which distinguishes the exercise of the priestly
ministry as an amoris officium,(52) "the priest, who welcomes the call to
ministry, is in a position to make this a loving choice, as a result of which
the Church and souls become his first interest, and with this concrete
spirituality he becomes capable of loving the universal Church and that part of
it entrusted to him with the deep love of a husband for his wife."(53) The
gift of self has no limits, marked as it is by the same apostolic and
missionary zeal of Christ, the good shepherd, who said: "And I have other
sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my
voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd" (Jn. 10:16 ).
Within the Church community the priest's pastoral charity
impels and demands in a particular and specific way his personal relationship
with the presbyterate, united in and with the bishop, as the Council explicitly
states: "Pastoral charity requires that a priest always work in the bond
of communion with the bishop and with his brother priests, lest his efforts be
in vain."(54)
The gift of self to the Church concerns her insofar as she
is the body and the bride of Jesus Christ. In this way the primary point of
reference of the priest's charity is Jesus Christ himself. Only in loving and
serving Christ the head and spouse will charity become a source, criterion,
measure and impetus for the priest's love and service to the Church, the body
and spouse of Christ. The apostle Paul had a clear and sure understanding of
this point. Writing to the Christians of the church in Corinth ,
he refers to "ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor
4:5). Above all, this was the explicit and programmatic teaching of Jesus when
he entrusted to Peter the ministry of shepherding the flock only after his
threefold affirmation of love, indeed only after he had expressed a
preferential love: "He said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of John, do
you love me?' Peter...said to him, 'Lord, you know everything; you know that I
love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep."' (Jn. 21:17)
Pastoral charity, which has its specific source in the
sacrament of holy orders, finds its full expression and its supreme nourishment
in the Eucharist. As the Council states: "This pastoral charity flows
mainly from the eucharistic sacrifice, which is thus the center and root of the
whole priestly life. The priestly soul strives thereby to apply to itself the
action which takes place on the altar of sacrifice."(55) Indeed, the
Eucharist re - presents, makes once again priest, the sacrifice of the cross,
the full gift of Christ to the Church, the gift of his body given and his blood
shed, as the supreme witness of the fact that he is head and shepherd, servant
and spouse of the Church. Precisely because of this, the priest's pastoral
charity not only flows from the Eucharist but finds in the celebration of the
Eucharist its highest realization - just as it is from the Eucharist that he
receives the grace and obligation to give his whole life a
"sacrificial" dimension.
This same pastoral charity is the dynamic inner principle
capable of unifying the many different activities of the priest. In virtue of
this pastoral charity the essential and permanent demand for unity between the
priest's interior life and all his external actions and the obligations of the
ministry can be properly fulfilled, a demand particularly urgent in a socio -
cultural and ecclesial context strongly marked by complexity, fragmentation and
dispersion. Only by directing every moment and every one of his acts toward the
fundamental choice to "give his life for the flock" can the priest
guarantee this unity which is vital and indispensable for his harmony and
spiritual balance. The Council reminds us that "priests attain to the
unity of their lives by uniting themselves with Christ whose food was to
fulfill the will of him who sent him to do his work.... In this way, by
assuming the role of the good shepherd they will find in the very exercise of
pastoral charity the bond of priestly perfection which will unify their lives
and activities."(56)
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